In the Beginning Was Information

Book Description:

“Powerful evidence for the existence of a personal God!”
INFORMATION IS THE CORNERSTONE OF LIFE, yet it is something people don’t often think about. In his fascinating new book, In the Beginning Was Information, Dr. Werner Gitt helps the reader see how the very presence of information reveals a Designer:
* Do we take for granted the presence of information that organizes every part of the human body, from hair color to the way internal organs work?
* What is the origin of all our complicated data?
* How is it that information in our ordered universe is organized and processed?
Gitt explains the necessity of information – and more importantly, the need for an Organizer and Originator of that information. The huge amount of information present in just a small amount of DNA alone refutes the possibility of a non-intelligent beginning for life. It all points to a Being who not only organizes biological data, but also cares for the creation.

Contents

Preface
Preface to the English Edition
Preliminary Remarks about the Concept of Information
Part 1: Laws of Nature

2 Principles of Laws of Nature

    2.1 The Terminology Used in the Natural Sciences
    2.2 The Limits of Science and the Persistence of Paradigms
    2.3 The Nature of Physical Laws
    2.4 The Relevance of the Laws of Nature
    2.5 The Classification of the Laws of Nature
    2.6 Possible and Impossible Events

Part 2: Information

3 Information is a Fundamental Entity

    3.1 Information: A Fundamental Quantity
    3.2 Information: a Material or a Mental Quantity?
    3.3 Information: not a Property of Matter!

4 The Five Levels of the Information Concept

    4.1 The Lowest Level of Information: Statistics
    4.2 The Second Level of Information: Syntax
    4.3 The Third Level of Information: Semantics
    4.4 The Fourth Level of Information: Pragmatics
    4.5 The Fifth Level of Information: Apobetics

5 Delineation of the Information Concept

6 Information in Living Organisms

    6.1 Necessary Conditions for Life
    6.2 The Genetic Code
    6.3 The Origin of Biological Information
    6.4 Materialistic Representation and Models of the Origin of Biological Information
    6.5 Scientists against Evolution

7 The Three Forms in which Information Appears

8 Three Kinds of Transmitted Information

9 The Quality and Usefulness of Information

10 Some Quantitative Evaluations of Semantics

11 Questions often Asked about the Information Concept
Part 3: Application of the Concept of Information to the Bible

12 Life Requires a Source of Information

13 The Quality and Usefulness of Biblical Information

14 Aspects of Information as Found in the Bible

    14.1 God as Sender - Man as Recipient
    14.2 Man as Sender - God as Recipient
    14.3 The Highest Packing Density of Information

15 The Quantities Used for Evaluating Information and Their Application to the Bible

16 A Biblical Analogy of the Four Fundamental Entities, Mass, Energy, Information, and Will
Appendix

    A1 The Statistical View of Information
    A1.1 Shannon’s Theory of Information
    A1.2 Mathematical Description of Statistical Information
    A1.2.1 The Bit: Statistical Unit of Information
    A1.2.2 The Information Spiral
    A1.2.3 The Highest Packing Density of Information
    A1.3 Evaluation of Communication Systems
    A1.4 Statistical Analysis of Language
    A1.5 Statistical Synthesis of Language

A2 Language: The Medium for Creating, Communicating, and Storing Information

    A2.1 Natural Languages
    A2.1.1 General Remarks on the Structure of Human Language
    A2.1.2 Complexity and Peculiarities of Languages
    A2.1.3 The Origin of Languages
    A2.1.4 Written Languages
    A2.2 Special Languages Used in the Animal World
    A2.3 Does "Artificial Intelligence" Exist?

A3 Energy

    A3.1 Energy, a Fundamental Quantity
    A3.2 Strategies for Maximising the Utilisation of Energy
    A3.2.1 Utilisation of Energy in Technological Systems
    A3.2.2 Utilisation of Energy in Biological Systems (Photosynthesis)
    A3.3 The Consumption of Energy in Biological Systems: Strategies for Minimisation
    A3.4 Conservation of Energy in Biological Systems
    A3.4.1 Animal "Clorophyll"
    A3.4.2 Animal with "lamps"
    A3.4.3 The Lung, an Optimal Structure
    A3.4.4 The Flight of Migratory Birds
    A3.4.4.1 The Flight of Migrating Birds: An Accurate Energy Calculation
    A3.4.4.2 The Flight of Migrating Birds: A Navigational Masterpiece

References

Author Index